


firewhisky high

by puffygyu



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, M/M, Misunderstandings, Set Around Christmas, despite the description this is a fluffy fic with a happy ending, jeonghan aspires to be a hogwarts legend, meanie are obvious af what else is new, mingyu gets drunk hence the title, mingyu is hopelessly whipped, the trials and errors of gryffindor mingyu confessing to ravenclaw wonwoo, there is one short quidditch game in it to make up for the lack of magic, wonwoo is the perfect ravenclaw prefect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:47:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29614494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puffygyu/pseuds/puffygyu
Summary: Jeon Wonwoo is certainly the greatest threat Hogwarts has to offer to Kim Mingyu's poor heart, especially now that rumours makes it around the castle that he might not be the only one smitten for him.OrThe trials and errors of Gryffindor Kim Mingyu trying his best to confess to Ravenclaw Jeon Wonwoo before anyone else does.
Relationships: Jeon Wonwoo/Kim Mingyu
Comments: 4
Kudos: 142





	firewhisky high

**Author's Note:**

> it took me one year and three tries to write it, but here it is now finally.

With a groan Mingyu sat down on the bench, his robes drenched and fingers numb, having barely no feeling in his face anymore. Quidditch practice in winter was always a pain. If it didn’t snow, they were greeted by disgusting rain or heavy blowing wind, making the red-clothed students on their brooms its play toy. Whatever their captain said in the beginning of shoot-outs for new players, this was the real qualification round.

Today it had been cold, never stopping rain, paired with occasional wind, blowing the drops directly into their faces.

Soonyoung walked past, every step of his accompanied with a squeak, making the wet socks in the Gryffindor-boy’s shoes rather obvious. Mingyu would have laughed if not his own socks were completely soaked too.

Slowly, he started removing his cloak, placing the dripping garment beside him, his fingers clamping around his wand to blow-dry his remaining clothes. He wanted nothing more than to crash down in the Gryffindor common room right next to the warm fire, listening to Minghao nag in the background and to not think again for the rest of the day.

Their captain Seungcheol had other ideas.

A loud clap broke through the silence, Seungcheol gesturing his worn-out team to gather around. No one moved however, too tired to walk up to their captain and Seungcheol gave in, placing himself in the middle of the room to at least insure he could look at them all.

As Seungcheol launched into a monologue on how much more they had to train to have a slight chance against Hufflepuff in about three weeks, Soonyoung slipped beside him on the bench, removing his boots. Mingyu had to stifle a laughter at the expression of horror on the older Gryffindor’s face, when a rush of water streamed out of his right shoe.

Seungcheol had reached the climax of his speech, how they would finally overtake Ravenclaw in the Quidditch-Cup with their win, when he felt Soonyoung poking his side.

“I am having dinner with Wonwoo later, wanna come?”, were the mumbled words following the gesture.

Only the mention of a certain Ravenclaw was everything his dumb heart needed to beat a lot faster than it was healthy.

There were only three things that could make him feel this way: Quidditch, forgetting to hand in an essay for McGonagall and Jeon Wonwoo. Besides the ever-growing workload of the Gryffindor, Jeon Wonwoo was probably the biggest challenge his heart had faced in his Hogwarts-student-life.

One part wanted to scream yes; yes he wanted to eat dinner with the both of them, stealing glances at Wonwoo or even openly gawk at him, when the other had buried his nose in a book. But against the wishes of his heavily beating heart, he shook his head.

“Can’t. Still need to finish up an essay for Charms.”

He felt Soonyoung’s hand sympathetically clapping down on his back.

This was only half the truth. He indeed needed to finish up this essay, but luckily it wasn’t due till next week. Quite frankly, he didn’t want to present himself in front of Wonwoo this way and in the end, he would say something stupid again. No, as much as Mingyu liked to stare at Wonwoo, this was not the day for it.

“And that is why and how we are going to beat Hufflepuff, understood?”

Seungcheol didn’t look too happy with the almost non-existent cheers for his motivational speech and the yawn earned from Soonyoung, nevertheless let them off the hook seeing the tiredness in their eyes.

“I can’t believe we really have to come out every week like this”, Soonyoung grumbled while the two gave their best to not get blown away by the harsh wind, Mingyu already feeling the wetness in his socks again.

He got spared of any answer, thanks to an especially gustily intake of rain swinging their way and both hurried along to shelter.

Fortunately, they arrived at the entrance hall shortly after, Soonyoung still grumbling and Mingyu’s hair as wet as it has been after practice. He was trying his best to wring out his fringe, when Soonyoung let out a “Wonwoo” and Mingyu halted in all his actions. Wonwoo was standing in front of the Great Hall, his clothes in comparison completely dry and giving a small smile in the direction of the two Gryffindors; Mingyu was sure the heat in his cheeks could light up all the candles in the Great Hall and his flight or die instinct kicked in. He stammered a goodbye to Soonyoung and almost stumbled into column on his escape. A portrait with an old wizard sitting in front of a giant crystal ball snickered at his misery, giving his goodbye a certain pitiful air.

Against Soonyoung’s hopes the weather didn’t get any better. The wind only seemed to turn worse and Mingyu almost got blown against one of the invisible Thestrals in his weekly lessons of Care of Magical Creatures. Funnily, the rain only started pouring down when he was on his way to practice, leaving their cloaks mud-brown instead of the previous red. His schoolwork load increased too, he could feel himself getting behind in Charms, still not having fully mastered casting non-verbal spells. Christmas was approaching fast and he still had no idea what to gift all his friends. It got to the point with him waking up in the middle of the night, sweating furiously thinking about accidentally splinting himself in one of his apparition lessons.

He was getting stressed to say the least.

Therefore, when he reached the library one week later on a Thursday, there were dark circles accompanying his eyes and he buried his face in the old library table, hoping all of his responsibilities would just disappear. 

He felt a soft pat on his hair, finding Wonwoo leaning across the surface to give his friend some encouragement. Mingyu could find his heart stutter at the action, the kind expression on the Ravenclaw’s face not helping in this situation at all.

Wonwoo quickly looked around for any signs of Madame Pince, before half-mouthing half whispering words meant for the miserable Gryffindor-boy.

“Bad day?”  
Knowing too well that he couldn’t whisper for the life of him, Mingyu gave him a suffering look, sniffing slightly to emphasize his point. A soft smile emerged on Wonwoo’s face, quickly glancing around again, before sliding over a chocolate frog.

Mingyu tried his best to let the frog disappear in his mouth as discretely as possible, Wonwoo’s gaze still heavy on him. A quick pout appeared on his face when he saw the card attached. After all those years he still missed three cards and this one in his hand was the sixth Dumbledore of his.

He looked up again, being confronted instantly with Wonwoo, who mouthed another word.

“Feeling better?”

Mingyu nodded vigorously.

When Mingyu had been in his second year, his grades could have scared a troll away. Coming from a non-magical family there was a lot to take in. While he certainly was interested in making feathers fly and transforming match sticks, a larger part of his brain wanted to eat all the food in the Great Hall, to explore the castle to his heart content and not care about something as trivial as grades. He therefore started in his second year with a lot to catch up, especially in potions, where even Snape couldn’t be bothered anymore to make snarky comments, turning to plainly strip Gryffindor off their points. Seungcheol, who back then wasn’t Quidditch captain but only a mere third grader, trying his best to gain a place in the team, couldn’t stand the embarrassment anymore. He pulled some strings and introduced Mingyu to a Ravenclaw, who had been placing first in potions and three other subjects for two years straight. 

This was the first time Mingyu had met Wonwoo, who from now on spent two hours a week teaching the younger everything he had to offer. No matter what Mingyu dropped in his cauldron out of clumsiness, Wonwoo gently corrected him, showing him the right way to skin a bat wing or to measure bulbadox juice. 

Falling in love with Wonwoo had been so easy and natural that Mingyu only noticed how gone he was the moment he received an Acceptable in potion, instead of being happy almost crying on the spot. Contrary to his wet eyes and his thought of Wonwoo stopping their weekly study sessions, they never agreed to cease them (only suspending them once for one month when Mingyu was laying in the hospital wing after a disastrous Quidditch match), meeting up every week in the library without fail. The sessions only made Mingyu fall deeper and after four years of harvesting his crush on the older boy, there was truly no turning back without his heart getting torn into tiny pieces. The problem was – there was no way forward either. Too afraid of getting rejected and their comfortable arrangement broken, Mingyu rather buried this crush somewhere deep in his heart. Even when it meant to look like a kicked puppy every time someone made a move on Wonwoo. Or him getting scared of Wonwoo hearing his ridiculous loud beating heart when he was with him.

They stayed in the library for one more hour, Mingyu trying to make progress on translating some runes, Wonwoo buried his nose deep into a book about astronomy.

At one point, Mingyu gave up deciphering one tricky Rune and instead indulgent into one of his favourite hobbies – watching Wonwoo read.

Wonwoo’s gold-rimmed glasses were slowly sliding down his noise, his eyebrows furrowed, while his teeth were slightly sinking into his lower lip. He couldn’t help himself and a smile spread over the Gryffindor’s face at this image, his fingers curling around his Quill to at least look somewhat occupied, while he took in the image in front of him. Wonwoo turned a page, muttering something under his breath, a crease appearing on his forehead, resulting in skipping some more pages.

Mingyu got startled, when Wonwoo suddenly closed the book, trying his best to let his gaze wander somewhere else in a sad try of not committing to his staring. Wonwoo caught his glance, nevertheless, pointing his head to the door, a clear statement of “I reached my limit of sitting at this place”.

Mingyu couldn’t agree more.

The Gryffindor stored all his stuff in his bag with a swift movement, Wonwoo struggling a lot more with the sheer amount of learning-material he had brought over. In the end he settled for a jam-packed bag and his arms full of two books.

“One more mention of Venus in her third moon and I would have caused a massacre in there.”, groaned Wonwoo the moment they left the room, obviously enjoying speaking in a normal voice again.

Mingyu laughed at his misery, teasing words pouring out of his mouth.

“Are you sure you could have handled that life-time ban of not seeing the library?”

This made Wonwoo groan even more.

“No, I probably would have come crawling back to Madam Pince to let me in again.”

He earned another laugh from Mingyu’s side and wouldn’t his hands been so full of two books, the younger probably would have experienced a soft flick to his forehead.

Their legs automatically led them to the Great Hall, another study tradition of theirs. Every time they didn’t finish too late, they would find themselves at a table again, eating some sweet dessert and letting out all those words they couldn’t say in the library due to the noise restriction.

This time it wasn’t any different.

At this hour the Great Hall only had to offer a sparse number of students sitting around, chatting with each other, most of them already retreated to their common rooms.

Mingyu and Wonwoo sat down at the middle of the Ravenclaw table (Mingyu ignoring the looks some of them gave him thanks to the lion on his school-uniform), dumping all their heavy stuff on the benches.

“So, I heard you nearly got in trouble with Filch?”

Mingyu almost choked on his pudding, a pout settling on his lips.

“I swear, this wasn’t my fault at all, Filch just wanted someone to punish for the corridor getting dirty with all people bringing in mud!”

The grin on Wonwoo’s face told him, that his words weren’t convincing anyone. His only chance to not relief those embarrassing memories was to abruptly change the topic.

“What about you? Any luck with job offers yet?”

Being in the seventh grade, Wonwoo’s time at Hogwarts was drawing to a close, leaving him to the heavy choice of finding something to spend his time on afterwards. Every time Mingyu thought about the older one not being here anymore, his stomach made some painful movements, his heart crushing a little bit more, his sanity slipping. As a result, he tried to not dwell on this topic too often and it seemed like he wasn’t the only one trying to bury those thoughts somewhere far away.

A frown appeared on Wonwoo’s face.

“No clue. I have scheduled a meeting with Flitwick after Christmas, so maybe he can tell me more. Till now I am only drowning in all those flyers the ministry of magic seems to be sending out every week. I only know that I would rather eat all the bad flavours of Bertie Botts Beans than working as a wand permissioner.”

Mingyu had already opened up his mouth to reply that Wonwoo would surely do his best to permission the wand of every annoying Hogwarts first year, when another smaller Ravenclaw stopped in front of the pair.

Lee Chan was a fifth year muggleborn Ravenclaw, who sometimes had more guts than braincells. How he had managed to sneak his way into Ravenclaw was sometimes a mystery, sometimes proven by the perfect test-scores he brought back. Mingyu knew the younger through some turns and twists of fate and being acquainted with Vernon, another fifth year Ravenclaw boy, who was a close friend of Minghao, sixth year Gryffindor and (sometimes sadly) one of Mingyu’s closest friend. This, however, did not explain Chan’s sudden appearance and his nerve of disturbing his and Wonwoo’s alone time.

Chan couldn’t care less.

He only gave Wonwoo a short nod of acknowledgment, before turning to Mingyu.

“Seungkwan said to tell you, that he can’t make it tomorrow. He’s busy.”  
“And he can’t tell me that himself?”

“I owed him, so I had to play the owl here. Don’t know about anything else.”

His eyes darted to Wonwoo for one moment.

“But he said he would make it up.”

With those words, Chan turned around, obviously having fulfilled his part of the agreement and seeing no more reason to stay, yet, he left a weird air between Mingyu and Wonwoo behind, both not knowing how to pick up their conversation again or how to acknowledge the interruption. Wonwoo awkwardly cleared his throat, turning to the side, to reach for the potatoes. Mingyu poking his Pudding, as if he was the culprit for the silence.

“If everything fails, I am sure the Leaky Cauldron will still take you in.”

The words came over Mingyu’s lips without too much thinking in a desperate attempt to go back to their previous conversation topic. To his relieve, it did the trick.

Wonwoo snorted, placing the potatoes on his plate, the awkwardness dissolving, turning back to the comfortable atmosphere from before.

“Even then you won’t get any discount there when you come visit me.”

The Ravenclaw started eating again, grinning at Mingyu’s attempt to explain why he didn’t want any discount from Wonwoo in the first place. While Mingyu got poutier and poutier in his efforts to make his point, one part of his brain was left to the question what plans he had exactly made with Seungkwan that needed cancelation. 

“You are staring.”

“I am not.”

“You are.”

Mingyu stopped chewing on his toast and moved his eyes from Wonwoo to Minghao right across him.

“How can you tell; you aren’t even looking up.”

Minghao let out a sigh, eyes still not leaving the Daily Prophet laying on the table.

“At this point I can tell even without looking up. You slump down in a particular pitiful way every time.”

A pout appeared on Mingyu’s lips. Minghao wasn’t wrong about the staring (no, he certainly wasn’t slumping down pitifully). Wonwoo had appeared two minutes after the two Gryffindors had sat down on their table, his hair not completely combed through, tired looking eyes behind his glasses, putting way too much fried eggs on his plate. He looked like he hadn’t slept much, making him very attractive and maybe that’s why had openly gawked at him for several minutes, once almost missing his mouth with his spoon.

To not get called pitiful (or something worse) again, Mingyu turned his gaze to his _fantastic beasts and where to find them_ book, indulging in Newt Scamander’s description of Knarl’s to be at least somewhat prepared for his following lesson.

“How is my favourite Gryffindor doing this lovely morning?”

Jeonghan appeared out of nowhere, sitting down next to Mingyu, loosely slinging his arm around the Gryffindor’s shoulder.

“Don’t let Seungcheol hear this.”

The Slytherin reached for a piece of orange, letting it disappear in his mouth.

“How is my second favourite Gryffindor doing?”

7th year Slytherin-prefect Yoon Jeonghan was almost a Hogwarts legend. The almost was here, because till you killed a basilisk and won the Triwizard tournament, you were no Hogwarts legend. And Jeonghan’s biggest achievement to this day was not to get killed by all the people he offended over the years. He always knew the latest gossip around the castle, often selling it off to the highest bidder, nothing happening in the castle escaped his eyes. Rumour had it he even knew some of the yearly O.W.L test questions, which could explain the influx of money he always had around the time of the year.

How Mingyu befriended this serpent – he could not say. It probably was Seungcheol, who brought him in the Gryffindors life. Since then, Jeonghan refused to leave him alone, always offering the details of other people’s life’s Mingyu never wanted to hear.

Him showing up probably meant he would get to hear something not too pleasant again.

Oh, and the morning had started so good.

“Great.”

“Ah, very glad to hear that.”

Jeonghan’s smile let on that he had never expected anything else besides great or fantastic, reaching for some toast now, before waving to Minghao.

“Good morning Hao.”

Somehow, Minghao never fell victim to Jeonghan’s shenanigans, the boy giving the Slytherin a short smile, before returning to his morning lecture. How Mingyu envied him.

It didn’t take long for Jeonghan to spread the news he was here for.

After the toast was gone in his mouth, Jeonghan started to lean in closer to shield himself against all the other people’s ears in the room.

“By the way I have news.”

“About the poor Ravenclaw-girl who almost blew up the potion-classroom? The whole school knows.”

“No. Someone asked Wonwoo out.”

Mingyu never thought there would be a sentence worse than having failed his O.W.L.’s, but he just found it. His lungs tightened up painfully and a gagging sound left his throat. It was so hard to breath, the room started to spin and he tried to grip the table to get pulled to the ground again.

While a part of Mingyu’s heart just broke, Jeonghan wasn’t finished with his deadly words yet.

“It was a Hufflepuff-girl. He seemed a little bit panicky though and said he would let her know after Christmas. Do you think he likes her back?”

Mingyu didn’t notice himself getting up and grabbing his book with shaking fingers. He started to see things double if the two faces of a concerned Minghao was any indication of it.

“I gotta go.”, was the only thing he could muster up, before sprinting out of the Great Hall.

Luckily, Jeonghan didn’t hold him back.

They day went by in a weird daze. His brain functioned on autopilot, he himself not knowing how he got through the lessons, Minghao’s concerned face always hovering on the edge on his vision. Not even a short and unpleasant visit with Peeves, who was dropping cabinets all over the corridors, was enough to snap him back to normal.

And so, he found himself curled up on one of the comfy chairs in the Gryffindor common room near the fire at seven pm, ready to rock himself to sleep.

Life, however, had again other plans for him in store.

Something hit his head, making him look up, encountering Minghao’s face right in front of his, a package of Bertie Botts dropping into his lap. His friend wasn’t alone, Seungcheol peeking out from behind, his expression reminding the Gryffindor a lot of Professor McGonagall when she graded unsatisfactory answers. 

“Mingyu, let’s talk.”

Mingyu whimpered instead, reaching for the sweets and started stuffing them in his mouth so that he indeed could not talk. But the two of them seemed to be serious about it, pushing two chairs right next to him, establishing a small bubble to shield themselves from the noise going on in the room. Mingyu never wished more for a filibuster firecracker to explode.

They waited, one more patiently than the other, for Mingyu to finally swallow his tomato-tasting beans.

“I don’t want to talk.”

While his face didn’t display it, in his voice certainly sounded pouty.

“So, you rather sit here and feel sorry for yourself?”

Mingyu let out a high-pitched whine. Why did Minghao always stab where it hurt?  
Seungcheol seemed to sense his unwillingness and sprinted in.

“We are just here to help, nothing more.”

“Or more for you to finally get yourself in gear and stop being a coward.”

For one moment there could only the bustle around them be heard, then Mingyu dropped his face in his hands. Sensing, that he wouldn’t take the lead in this conversation, his friends took over.

“Look, I know you since you entered Hogwarts. I saw you developing a crush on Wonwoo and doing nothing about it up to this point. Every time someone made a move on Wonwoo, you walked around with a crushed expression, only getting better when Wonwoo rejected them. At this point everyone including Snape knows about your crush, except for Wonwoo himself.”

“It’s been so long, Mingyu, don’t you think it is finally time to do something about it?”, Seungcheol tried to coax him in a softer tone. It felt like they played good cop, bad cop like shown in all those muggle dramas.

“My point is, eventually Wonwoo will accept someone’s advances and what are you going to do then?”

Mingyu’s heart sank at the image of Wonwoo holding someone’s hand, walking around the castle grounds laughing with them, kissing them tenderly; he felt like throwing up. His face scrunched together in an apparently somewhat worrying expression as Seungcheol hurried along.

“You can’t keep this inside you forever, how about telling Wonwoo how you feel? At least you won’t have any regrets if he really accepts the girl.”

Mingyu almost jumped out of his chair, his face turning ash-grey, furiously shaking his head, his heart painfully jumping in his ribcage, his body suddenly too small for it. The other two didn’t seem to notice the gravity of the option they just presented in front of him.

“No no no. i-I can’t.”

Minghao looked like he wanted to point his wand at him.

“Why not?”

Mingyu swallowed hard, his throat suddenly closing. His words sounded choked up.

“Wonwoo doesn’t feel this way. About me. About us. I-I am sure. What if I make it weird, what if he doesn’t want to see me anymore? No no no, I can’t do this.”

Just the thought about not having Wonwoo to talk about trivial things anymore was too painful to bear.

The other two didn’t seem to share this sentiment.

“You basically have weekly dates.”

“They are not dates! We just sit there in silence, studying.”  
“Dates.”

“Not-dates!”  
They could have keep going like this for hours, quarrelling about the definition of dates, both defending their own opinion, if it hadn’t been for the third friend in their middle, who decided enough was enough.

Seungcheol hit the table with his flat hand.

The sound was enough to shut both Mingyu and Minghao up (as well as some unsuspecting first graders, who looked terrified).

“Mingyu, get your act together. Wonwoo has been sticking with you since you were this unlikeable pre-teen, he even saw you when you were bandaged up in the hospital wing for a month for falling off your broom. It can’t get any worse than that. We are not here to embarrass you. But how long do you think this will go on? Wonwoo will graduate soon and then you might see each other once a year. And thank god I won’t be here anymore to witness the pouting you will do.”

Mingyu started to fidget, his brain running a mile per second.

As scary as the thought about confessing his feelings sounded, he maybe rather got rejected than crying all through his seventh year missing Wonwoo and regretting his decisions.

“Ok ok, I will do it.”

Seungcheol and Minghao looked triumphant.

“After the Quidditch match in one week.”

By the time the three stopped quarrelling, the common room was empty and they were the last ones awake.

Tiredness clung to Mingyu’s eyes when he opened them the next day, feeling exhaustion in his bones, having nothing to do with his lack of sleep. The picture of Wonwoo with someone else by his side engraved in his brain now made him whimper slightly and he tried to push the panic aside when he reminded himself of his promise of confessing to the older.

By the time Mingyu made it to the Great Hall for breakfast, somehow half of his friend group knew about this plan.

“Mingyu, if nothing works out, I can still give you a love potion as the last plan.”, Slytherin-boy Jisoo said casually at breakfast, clapping down on Mingyu’s shoulder as he walked past to the Slytherin table.

Mingyu wanted an invisibility-cloak to disappear from this world.

“There is no need to be so anxious about it, Wonwoo always had a soft spot for you.”, said Hufflepuff Seokmin as they walked down to Herbology, shielding themselves from the merciless wind.

If Seokmin wanted to give some comfort to Mingyu, he failed big, making the other even more anxious than before. Wonwoo may had a soft spot for him (even though this information was still up for debate), there was no way there were reciprocated romantic feelings in this game.

“This is the reason why you will end up single.”, was Seungkwan’s comment to Mingyu’s inner turmoil when they were sitting in the transfiguration courtyard, a bottled up flame besides them to keep them warm, a lazy match of wizard chess between them (Mingyu’s figures were getting slaughtered till now, his Horse giving him an accusing look from the side, where he had been dragged off to from Seungkwan’s white Queen).

Mingyu was in the middle of replying that ruining his relationship with Wonwoo and staying single were two completely different things, when the Hufflepuff jolted his head in the air like he suddenly got a vision.

“Oh, look who it is.”

Mingyu almost snapped his neck whipping his head around and, oh god, there he was. Wonwoo walked down the way to the transfiguration classroom, talking to fellow Ravenclaw Jihoon. Swept up hair, books in hand, his shiny prefect batch pinned on his cloak and Mingyu bet he could hear his soft laugh being transferred to him through the wind. His heartbeat accelerated like he was free-falling from his broom 200 metres in the air, his palms sweaty. For one moment time slowed down and he could see Wonwoo walking past without noticing him, but like a miracle Wonwoo turned around, spotting the Gryffindor. He shifted his books from one hand to the other, waving at him, a bright smile on display. Jihoon turned around too, his reaction being a lot more modest, raising his hand in a very Jihoon-style.

Mingyu let out an unintelligible sound, turning beet-red, in the last moment remembering to also wave back, moving his hand in a weird fashion, which just barely passed as a wave. Wonwoo didn’t seem to be bothered by it, sending a last smile over, before disappearing into the castle.

“God, that was embarrassing.”

As a revenge, Mingyu took out one of Seungkwan’s towers on the board.

“You have no right to judge me! Why are we here anyways, this probably was enough fresh air for the rest of my life.”

Seungkwan tapped the board with his wand, the figures jumping to the side and to their respective places before it shut itself to be neatly placed in the Hufflepuff’s pocket.

Hufflepuff.

Before he could get up, Mingyu reached out and pulled on his robe with enough force to make the younger sit down again.

“Wait. Jeonghan said it was a Hufflepuff-girl asking Wonwoo out. Do you maybe know her?”

For one second something flashed up in Seungkwan’s eyes, an emotion Mingyu couldn’t put his fingers on, but ten seconds later it was gone, returning to its original, slightly pissed off stage.

“Just because I am a fellow Hufflepuff I don’t know everybody, especially older students.”

“So she is older than you?”

Realizing that Mingyu wasn’t in the mood to give up the topic any time soon and seeing his good friend in so much despair, Seungkwan sighed rather heavily and gave in.

“I can try to ask around a little bit, no promises tho.”

Mingyu gave him the brightest smile he had to offer, having to restraint himself from throwing his arms around the younger and smooching his cheek against the other.

“Why do you even want to know this?”, Seungkwan grumbled, finally getting up and taking with the Gryffindor the same path Wonwoo had walked just some minutes ago.

“To assess the enemy, of course.”  
For that, he just earned an incredulous scoff. 

While Mingyu might have said something about confessing after they (hopefully) won their Quidditch-match, there were different reasons making him anxious about this plan. First, who would say Wonwoo would really stick to his plan too? Maybe he would decide from one day to the other that he liked to be with the girl and Mingyu would never even have a chance to confess, the next time seeing the other being in the arm of someone else. Second, thinking so much about Wonwoo made his concentration slip and it ended up with Seungcheol screaming at him through the heavy wind after almost being hit three times by a Blutcher (it was the first time Mingyu was glad to land on ground again).

And third and last, it made things awkward between Wonwoo and Mingyu.

After hearing the news, Mingyu only saw Wonwoo twice, both on the hallways, running from one classroom to the next. The first time Mingyu almost fell over his feet, turning red and not even getting any words out of his mouth. A concerned look followed him the whole walk. The second time was less humiliating, only ending up with Mingyu’s voice cracking at the end.

One part of his heart was even hurt by the fact Wonwoo didn’t even tell him about someone confessing to him. Wasn’t he supposed to be one of his friends? Don’t you tell friends about things like this? After he got over himself being hurt, he fell into panic.

This was truly the only explanation for the thing he did.

For their next not-date he showed up with a whole box of chocolate-frogs.

Mingyu clutched his bag, his thoughts constantly with the box of limited-edition chocolate-frogs, which was buried deep into its depts. It originally had been his Christmas-present for his little sister, who was always so curious about the Wizarding World she could only experience through her older brother. He had picked it up last time he had been in Hogsmeade and paid too much for the fancy packaging. Now, it was wrapped in a pretty bow. Mingyu had been up almost half of the night, debating on whether to include a short note. After writing the phrase “Wonwoo, I like you” three times in different handwriting, he discarded the idea.

Standing in front of the library now, 17 hours later, he regretted not sticking with it. Because now he had to actually say the words instead of simply placing the box in front of Wonwoo and sprinting out of the room faster like a Hippogriff.

The gravity of the situation hit him two corners away from their usual study-place and he needed to sit down, the room spinning and his stomach turning. This must have been the worst idea of his whole life. Not even promising Soonyoung to distract Filch so that he could slip into his office could top this. He sat there for a solid minute, mulling over every possible outcome, the Chocolate-Box burning through his brain. Wonwoo didn’t like him. He would get rejected. At least he would have the Chocolate to sooth his heartbreak. Breathing became heavier, he never knew it needed this much strength.

Mingyu, you are truly dumber than a troll.

In the end there was no use of prolonging the meeting anymore. Mingyu tried to hold on to Minghao’s words: At least you got it out in the end.

When he plopped down across Wonwoo on the table littered with books, his emotional state was a wreck. The older one looked even better today than he usually did, his eyes glistening brighter than the stars, his glasses a little bit crooked on his face, his long fingers softly holding onto a quill.

Mingyu gave his best to memorise all this in his heart for the case Wonwoo never wanted to see him again after this.

A smile played on the Ravenclaw-boy’s lips, when he saw his study-companion. He gave Mingyu a short nod, nudging his feet against the Gryffindor’s, a way to greet him.

 _Finally, you are here, I am drowning in work,_ it seemed to say.

Mingyu couldn’t help but to return the smile. 

In the hour they stayed at their table, Wonwoo wrote a whole essay on something that looked suspiciously like the dangers of Amortentia. Maybe Mingyu really should have stuck to a love potion.

The Gryffindor however, didn’t get any work done, his eyes scanning the same page over and over for thirty minutes, before he closed it and tried his hand on an essay. This didn’t work out either.

It almost seemed as Wonwoo could feel his distress, sending a light kick against his shin, to get Mingyu’s attention, then quickly scribbled down a note on his parchment.

_Want to do something different?_

Mingyu hesitated for a moment, before nodding in agreement. Wonwoo took this as the cue to quickly empty his table and they were on their way out shortly after.

“Not your day for working?”, Wonwoo asked outside, holstering his bag up. Mingyu could only nod, his mind too occupied with other things. Should he do it now? No, there were still too many people around them, he didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of three bulky-looking Slytherin.

He followed Wonwoo, listening to his words but not really taking them in, only quiet thrown in “mhh’s” indication of his him being there.

He was so occupied, he didn’t even know where they were, when Wonwoo suddenly halted, he had never been to this part of the castle before or seen this hallway. It was completely deserted, no portraits were hanging on the walls either, just a lonely torch lightning the place up. 

Now was the time. Mingyu surely didn’t imagine of confessing in a windy hallway, but it was still better than the Great Hall with too many ears to witness his rejection. In his panic he didn’t see the face of distress Wonwoo was wearing nor did he question why they stopped in this particular place of the castle.

As he opened his mouth, his hands started to sweat, how should he get his box out of his bag at this rate, oh god, this was the worst-

“I need to tell you something.”  
Mingyu abruptly closed his mouth again, completely caught off-guard by Wonwoo’s words. Wonwoo displayed a sudden hint of nervousness, fiddling with the hem of his robe, avoiding Mingyu’s gaze as he was afraid of what the other could read in his face.

It was like all of Mingyu’s nightmares came through. He was sure now was the time Wonwoo would tell him he harboured feelings for this Hufflepuff-girl. He almost closed his eyes.

“Yeah, sure.”, he heard himself say through a thick layer of fog. He didn’t know how his voice could sound so stable, while his heart was beating itself into oblivion.

“It’s..”

Wonwoo’s front-teeth dug into his lower-lip. Mingyu had never seen him so unsure of his words and his heart suddenly stopped.

For one moment, Wonwoo’s eyes flittered from one place to another, before he settled for a forced smile.

“It’s nothing. Sorry.”

The smile didn’t reach his eyes, more like it was physical pain to maintain it, his fingers were still clinging to his clothes.

Mingyu let out a whine.

“This is not how things work.”

The forced smile slipped for a moment, being replaced with a rather sombre look. Mingyu liked this look even less than the fake-smile. He wanted to give Wonwoo a push in the right direction, even though the words that would come with it possibly breaking his heart, but he didn’t know where to start. Wonwoo, however, seemed to have found his footing again.

“You would stay my friend, no matter what happens, right?”

Mingyu felt like a Dementor was creeping its way to him, all happiness sucked out of him at those words. Instead of slipping instantly into crybaby mode (how Seokmin liked to call it), he gave a brave smile, his Patronus against the cruelty of impending words.

“Wonwoo, what does this even mean? Of course, I would.”  
Some sort of resolution crossed Wonwoo’s face, before being buried deep under a neutral expression.

“I’m glad.”

Mingyu waited for a certain specification for his words, for an explanation why he would ask such obvious things, but he never got one, Wonwoo instead started to walk again. 

The weird atmosphere, not so different from the one back when Chan interrupted their banter, stayed the whole walk to the Entrance Hall and was probably the reason why they bid farewell to each other there instead of entering the Hall.

The box of Chocolate as well as the words stayed where they had been the whole time.

Minghao found Mingyu in front of the fire, a whole, now empty box of Chocolate-Frogs in front of him, a very grumpy Mingyu in one of the chairs, some Chocolate gracing his lips, where he had been too greedy stuffing the sweets in his mouth.

“Do I even want to know what happened?”

It looked like he wanted to, slumping beside his best friend, listening to his story. Kudos to Minghao, he suppressed his laugh at Mingyu’s coping mechanism.

“So, you ate all of them instead? All of the 16 chocolate-frogs?”

As an answer, Mingyu threw one of the crumbled packages at him.

“Excuse me, this is hardly the problem here. Minghao, he likes her back, I am 100% sure of it. Why else would he asked such a question?”

To this, Minghao had the audacity to roll his eyes.

“You can’t even know this. How are you sure it is about this issue and not about something completely else? And isn’t this a good sign? You were so worried about ruining your “perfect relationship with Wonu”, now you have a safety net of him not doing it. Get your ass into gear already, Mingyu.”

The lanky Gryffindor pushed himself out of his chair, patting down encouragingly on Mingyu’s shoulders, heading for his room. He was almost through the door, when Mingyu found his voice again.

“Do you want to trade? On top of everything else half of this stupid cards were Dumbledore’s.

From the cards, Dumbledore looked at him like he never had seen someone so dumb as Mingyu – and he probably was right.

The next day Mingyu plopped down next to Seungkwan in the Great Hall, not able to prolong this matter any longer.

“So, did you find anything out about Mrs. Mysterious?”, he dug straight into the topic. Beside Seungkwan, Seokmin, face almost buried in the cereal bag with large eyebags thanks to a pulled all-nighter, gave him a weak smile but was too tired to take part in the conversation. Mingyu appreciated his sentiment. Seungkwan did not.

“Thanks, this is the best start in the day I ever had.”

With a dramatic sigh, Seungkwan chugged down half of his coffee with Mingyu impatiently waiting, fingers tapping against the table-wood. In the end Seungkwan took pity.

“I asked Junhui about the topic.”

Wen Junhui, seventh year Hufflepuff, local ace of care of magical creatures and always ready for a prank that would get you so in trouble. And on top of everything else – part of the same friend circle as Wonwoo. When Junhui and Soonyoung let their chaotic nature loose, Wonwoo and Jihoon were there to ground them back to reality, pulling the two out of trouble more than once. 

Seungkwan saw the expression of true horror in Mingyu’s eyes, quickly adding on another explanation.

“Don’t worry. You know Junhui, even though he is friends with Wonwoo, he doesn’t gossip. I just casually asked him about the topic, he has way more connections wen it comes to the higher years than I do anyways. But Wonwoo never told him anything about someone confessing nor is there a gossip going around. Mrs. Mystery further remains.. a mystery.”

Mingyu’s forehead hit the table with such a terrific sound, it even scared poor Seokmin awake, sliding over some scrambled eggs in pity.

“I’m sorry Mingyu, I am truly.”

Seungkwan’s voice was laced with true concern.

“If you want to hear my honest opinion, I stand with Seungcheol and Minghao; just confess. Don’t care about this Hufflepuff-girl.”

Mingyu grumbled, something like “easier than it sounds”, to which Seungkwan let out a small laugh.

“Aren’t you the guy who almost broke all his bones for doing this highly risky move on his broom? If you can do this, you surely can tell Wonwoo how much of a fool you are for him.”

He wanted to reply that a) this hadn’t been voluntarily, his limbs had tried to kill him again and b) he was no fool, but then Seungkwan painfully pressed his elbow in his ribs, followed by a “hey Vernon.”

Mingyu looked up and found Ravenclaw-boy Vernon standing in front him, a second nudge followed suit and something clicked in his brain.

With a big grin on his lips he stood up, gesturing to his seat.

“Oh please, sit down I was just on my way out.”

Seokmin had decided he didn’t want to watch the following show either, scrambling to his feet.

“Have a lot of fun you two.”

One last grin at Seungkwan, who looked ready to use Sectumsempra on him and a Vernon, looking slightly confused and he was on his way to leave the Hall, Seokmin by his side.

When he looked back one more time, his gaze shifted slightly to left – crossing eyes with Wonwoo, who had looked at him the whole time.

Christmas came marching in with great strides. Hagrid was dragging in several giant trees, which were populated by Pixie’s in Santa Dresses, while magical snow fell from the ceiling, disappearing before it could drop to the ground. Holiday mood was breaking lose in the castle, even the teachers cut them some slack, McGonagall only humming in content when she saw Seokmin’s poor attempt of a Bird-Conjuring Charm. The list to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays made its round, but Mingyu and all his friends (including Wonwoo) didn’t sign it.

Mingyu seemed to be the only who lost energy every minute Christmas grew closer to him. While his Quidditch-training took all his concentration away, his thoughts were with Wonwoo and the weird situation they had manoeuvred themselves into. 

Every time they saw each other on the hallway awkward smiles were exchanged, but no attempts made on conversation.

It drove Mingyu mad.

Despite the lack of exchanged words, glances seemed to be thrown around plenty. Whenever Mingyu was in the Great Hall, he constantly felt the Ravenclaw’s eyes boring in his head, the older not even bothering averting gaze, Mingyu staring back as if it was a competition. He was sure Wonwoo was trying to say something through his eyes, but sadly Mingyu couldn’t decipher its meaning.

This weren’t the only instances.

One particular nasty Quidditch-training later Mingyu left the Pitch feeling completely drained, only to come face to face with Wonwoo, waiting several metres away in a soft looking long coat, legs trembling nonetheless from the cold. Their eyes locked again for several seconds, but before Wonwoo could say something, Soonyoung ushered past them, slinging an arm around Wonwoo, dragging him up to the castle, Mingyu in a safe distance trailing behind them.

A mysterious feeling told him, that Wonwoo wasn’t waiting for Soonyoung.

Neither Junhui nor Seungkwan came up with any other helpful information and before he could actually think about a plan to properly confess to Wonwoo the Quidditch-match was there.

At least the weather showed some mercy to him on the dreading day, only a light rain drizzling down to earth, nothing Mingyu couldn’t handle.

He tried his best to hype himself up for the game and the inevitable after-scenario, when Minghao caught up to him the minute he left the Great Hall, encouragements thrown at him from fellow Gryffindors. 

“But you are going to confess afterwards, right?”, Minghao asked while accompanying him to the field, holding on to a brightly coloured umbrella, not bothering to ask about his condition for this game.

“Of course, I am.”

Minghao didn’t look too convinced, but luckily Seungcheol appeared this moment, dragging Mingyu inside while waving Minghao away.

He would rather have a “good luck” from Wonwoo.

Seungcheol however was quick to dismiss every unnecessary thought from his brain.

“Alright! This is our one and only chance to get a head-start in the Quidditch-Cup. If we win with 170 points, we will finally pull ahead of Slytherin. Therefore, as mentioned before, we must give our best to at least score two goals before the Snitch shows up.”

The chaser gave his best to follow Seungcheol’s words, it didn’t help however, that he must heard them at least twice a week, almost being able to recite them in his sleep. Soonyoung almost yawning besides him made him feel better.

“The only right outcome today is with us wining!”

Their captain seemed to be finally done, Mingyu joining in the cheer, grabbing his broom, finding his place right behind Seungcheol, waiting for the shutters to open.

The loud cheers coming from the tribune and the anticipation of the game shot straight into his blood, excitement growing in his body. He could hear their captain say something again, but it drowned in the sound of the shutters opening and in the excited roar of the spectators.

The team walked out on the field, the Hufflepuffs joining them in the middle, dressed in all yellow.

Both captains shook each other’s hand, even though their smile seemed strained and Mingyu was sure, Seungcheol was pressing the fingers of the poor Hufflepuff captain a little bit too much to establish dominance.

Madame Hooch walked on to the field, the Quaffel under her arm, mustering each and every one of the players.

“No unfair plays allowed.”

After she made all players nod to the statement, she pulled out her whistle, a shrill tone echoing across the field, the Quaffel got thrown into the air and Mingyu pushed himself off the ground.

The world under him shrunk, he flew a slight looping, finally feeling free again, even though the harsh wind hit his face and his fingers began to freeze to his broomstick. For one moment his gaze wandered off to the side, to the tribune, which was dressed in all blue, searching for one familiar bespectacled face. But before he could make out anything, Soonyoung’s voice cut through the air, Mingyu dashing off to receive the Quaffel from his teammate.

In the distance he could hear Seungkwan’s voice commenting the game through the microphone, but he paid it no mind, the emotional comments often too distracting for him.

It didn’t take long, and he fell into the familiar rhythm associated with Quidditch. Here he knew what to do. One hasty jab to the right to escape the Beater, a quick pass to Soonyoung, flying beelines around the Keeper to distract them, receiving the Quaffle, aiming and shoot. The cheer of the Gryffindors at his goal fuelled him even more, adrenaline drumming in his ears, opening the doors to more risky manoeuvres. He ducked down immediately, eyes on the Quaffel so much, he almost missed the bludger flying in his direction. Seungcheol saved him with an ear-splitting hit on the ball, which made it drifting off in the distance, slightly looped to the side from the impact. His captain mouthed something at him, but Mingyu couldn’t hear it through the rush of blood in his ears and the harsh wind not transporting any messages his way. Before he could pounder too long over the meaning of the words, he sped off again.

Half an hour later Gryffindor led the game with 60 to 10, the snitch had showed himself once but neither of the seekers managed to get their hands on it. Seungcheol started to get more antsy the more time past, expecting a counterattack, which would throw them back again. In stark contrast, Mingyu was in his full element, no worries found on his mind. He chased the Quaffel, no matter how hopeless the situation seemed, retrieved it, passed it to his teammates and even tried to use himself as a shield once for their keeper, when a Bludger was thrown their way and Seungcheol was nowhere to be found (to his luck, their second Beater came speeding in, hitting the Bludger just in time).

Mingyu was flying beelines once again to get rid of the annoying Chaser on his tail, who desperately wanted to get his hands on the Quaffel, when two blurred figures shot past him, a tiny golden ball leaving them on. Everything ended so quickly after this. The snitch found itself in the hands of the Gryffindor seeker, the whistle from Madam Hooch sounded through the air and a roar could be heard from the golden part of the tribune.

Mingyu hit the ground so hard his legs got wobbly, running up to his teammates with a scream of victory, joining into their celebration, Soonyoung hitting his shoulder which went numb. The other Gryffindors ran up to the pitch, joining their team’s celebration.

Everything happening afterwards went by in a haze.

At one point he got dragged into the cabin, listened to Seungcheol’s fiery victory speech, their captain already drunk on the prospect of Gryffindor leading the Quidditch-league. After this, they loudly made their way to the common room, where a wild party was already in full force. People pulled them in, yelling into their ears over the loud music, clapping down on their backs, wanting to be near to their heroes.

Someone had smuggled in fire whisky and the dreading aspect of laying his feelings bare to Wonwoo made Mingyu accept the alcohol, hoping to gather the additional courage he lacked.

Minghao found Mingyu drinking his third shot of fire whisky, the alcohol mixing with the after-high of a furious victory and making him too drunk in a short time, adrenaline still running high.

“I know, I know, Wonwoo, I am on my way.”, Mingyu yelled at him through the loud noises of Gryffindor’s partying and before his friend could say anything else, he stumbled to the Portrait of the fat lady, ready to leave.

The biggest problem, however, only came to him the moment he stood lost in the Entrance Hall: he had no idea where Wonwoo was. While he maybe saw him at the game, it was highly likely that he returned to the Ravenclaw common room after it and Mingyu had no idea how to get there. A whimper escaped his throat and he almost threw a drunk tantrum on the spot, before deciding differently, coming to a complete stop like he got hit with a freezing-spell.

He stood there in the eerily empty Entrance Hall, waiting for something to happen, till-

“Mingyu?”

His head snapped up, searching frantically for the familiar voice which had called out to him.

“W-wonwoo!”  
Mingyu stumbled forward to the person he wanted to see the most, he almost fell in the arms of the older, fingers curling around his arms, pulling him closer for an awkward hug.

He heard Wonwoo say something, but it didn’t reach him through a thick fog suddenly appearing – and then everything went black.

He woke up shivering slightly, cold breathing at his neck, but his cheek and head comfortable resting on something soft. He smushed his face deeper in the soft sensation, slightly exhaling. Weird, it smelled exactly like Wonwoo.

Wonwoo.

He jolted in an upright position, remembering the last things happening before he woke up in this position.

“Ah, you are finally awake.”

Mingyu’s heart stopped.

Oh no no.

Wonwoo sat right beside him at a bench in one of the corridors with long arches not shielded by glass, not far away from the entrance hall. No wonder he had felt the cold. When he sat up, he had kicked down something suspiciously looking like a Ravenclaw robe, which had been draped around his body. The scariest part however was his former position – his soft “pillow” had been Wonwoo’s thigh. This made him sober up immediately.

Heat shot in his cheeks and he tried his best to hide his face from the other. All in all, he drank so much to blank out, slept on Wonwoo’s lap and then pressed his face against the Ravenclaw’s thigh; this couldn’t get any worse.

“Are you feeling better? I was worried.”

Wonwoo’s voice was laced with concern, not making this whole situation better for Mingyu.

“I-I’m sorry.”, was the only thing he could stutter out, his face getting even redder.

Instead of an answer Wonwoo reached for the fallen down robe, draped it over Mingyu’s body again, hesitating one moment, before reaching for Mingyu’s hands, covering them with his own. Mingyu realized he tried to warm him up. His brain blanked out and his body moved on autopilot, leaning in closer to Wonwoo, till their shoulders touched slightly.

“I’m sorry for bringing you here, but I don’t know the Gryffindor-password.”

His voice was quiet, as if it was only meant for Mingyu to hear. Being this close to him, he also could see a strange expression crossing his face, morphing into something like determination.

“Actually no, that’s a lie. Even if I knew the password, I wouldn’t have brought you back.”

“Are you trying to congratulate me for the win?”, Mingyu’s mouth blabbered out, before he could stop himself.

The smile on Wonwoo’s face seemed a little bit strained, only now Mingyu felt how his hands trembled in his. This time Mingyu didn’t follow up with any other words, staying silent to let Wonwoo gather his courage and thoughts.

“That too, but no, this wasn’t the true intention behind it. I’m a coward that’s why I ask you while you are drunk, so that you may forget it tomorrow when I get rejected.”

His heart started to beat almost painfully in his chest, but he was too tired to think about the implications behind those words. If he would get rejected for the Hufflepuff-girl now, at least his heartache would be over soon. He didn’t have to wait long for the next move.

“Do you like Seungkwan?”

Mingyu choked on air.

“W-what?”

Wonwoo’s eyes had grown in its intensity, now boring themselves into the Gryffindor, leaving no room for excuses.

“Do you like him?”

Mingyu’s brain must have been severely affected from the shock and the prior alcohol because he blurted out the first things coming to his mind.

“No, I like you.”

Now it was Wonwoo’s time to let out a strangled noise.

“w-what?”

Mingyu’s face started to heat up even more at this unexpected confession, his vision started to blur before him and his heart beating so loudly, he was scared Wonwoo might hear him. But somehow, he found some courage again for his next words.

“No, I only like you.”

Only then he remembered the state Wonwoo found him in.

“T-this is not the alcohol speaking, I swear!”

Wonwoo exhaled shakily, pink coloring his face and a shy smile appearing, amazement written over his face as he couldn’t trust his own ears. He leaned forward and Mingyu couldn’t help but to do the same, as if Wonwoo was a magnet pulling him in.

“You do? Really?”

The Ravenclaw’s words came breathlessly over his lips as if he needed to hear the words again and again. Mingyu nodded, not wanting to trust his voice and brain anymore in fear it would spill how much he actually liked the other. No matter how cautious he was, however, his mouth decided to just blabber on in his half-sober state.

“So much it sometimes hurts.”

If Wonwoo’s face had been a slight shade of pink before, now it was as red as a liondragon, it wouldn’t surprise Mingyu if his ears would emit steam. He would find this very adorable didn’t he just expose the massive crush he had harbored on the older for more than three years, scared of the things to come.

When Wonwoo started talking again, the words were completely contrary from what he had expected.

“I-I am probably going to suck at this, but I would like to confess to you now, Mingyu. But just that you know, I will confess to you tomorrow again when you are sober, so that you can’t put it on the alcohol speaking.”

Mingyu almost wanted to scream that no, he would never put it on the alcohol, that he was awestruck Wonwoo even considered confessing to him, but then Wonwoo exhaled again, avoiding his gaze and mumbling something between the lines of “you got this Jeon Wonwoo” under his breath.

Wonwoo was so cute.

Mingyu grabbed Wonwoo’s hand tighter as to give him strength and to give himself a stable point due his head started to spin from the possibility of Wonwoo confessing in front of him.

“I..started to like you the time I saw you flying in a Quidditch-match, even though you did all those dumb maneuvers, which looked like it would kill you.”

A fond expression took over Wonwoo, as if he could see third year Mingyu doing his acrobatics in the sky.

“When you really fell from your broom and landed in the Hospital Wing, I was so worried. I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see me, so I sneaked in with Soonyoung. Seeing you laying there made me realize, that this might be more than just a little stupid crush on the Quidditch’s chaser.”

Wonwoo’s ears turned redder and redder the more he spoke, but he just pushed his glasses up on his nose and continued.

“I don’t know. I found everything endearing. How you couldn’t control your limbs on the ground, always stumbling but could do it so well up in the air. How you always came running to your friend’s aid, including me, when you just even sensed one of them having troubles. How you pouted when things didn’t go the way you wanted them to and most definitely how you throw a tantrum from time to time. I still find them endearing. Actually, I like everything about you, but listing all those qualities up would mean embarrassing myself even further.”

Mingyu wanted to say no, Wonwoo would never embarrass himself in front of him, but he was still too stunned by the direction their conversation had took and so his mouth remained shut.

“No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t muster up the courage to tell you my true feelings. I guess I was just too scared of getting rejected and our arrangement was too comfortable to break out of, even if it meant to just swallow my feelings. But I won’t deny it anymore: Mingyu, I like you very much; maybe a little bit too much.”

A soft smile appeared on Wonwoo’s face, which instantly got mirrored on Mingyu’s, who still couldn’t believe the things happening in front of him. Suddenly, the smile vanished from Wonwoo’s lips.

“I couldn’t believe it at first when the rumours made its way around of you liking Seungkwan, it didn’t feel particular nice.”

A scowl appeared on Wonwoo’s face, as he was trying to solve an impossible puzzle presented right in front of him, only snapping out of it, when Mingyu carefully squeezed his hand, which had started to tremble again.

“Junhui said something about how you two seemed so close and always hung out. Even Jeonghan made some jabs in the direction. And every time I saw you two..everything just fitted so perfectly.”

Mingyu’s heart ached at the expression on Wonwoo and he tried to get closer, wanting to do anything to make it disappear again, to make Wonwoo happy again.

“I thought...i never stood a chance.”

Mingyu’s voice was small and hoarse while speaking, Wonwoo’s head snapping up, glued on to Mingyu’s lips.

“I felt so uninteresting and dumb, how could you even like me? So, I never said something, also too afraid you didn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore if I did.”

Against his will, a pout appeared on his face and to distract from this fact he hastily talked on, but the alcohol in his blood didn’t make things better.

“I-I really like you! I do! Since..we basically met and you tutored me in potion. You seemed so smart and you still are. You always take your time to listen my dumb stories and problems, anyone else would have fled already. I-I don’t know, I am just a lot happier when I am with you, so I guess that’s what being in love feels like. The original plan was to confess you after Quidditch and I might have drunk too much to get the courage to do so. I-I am not so good with words like you, but.. I really like you.”

His face was now heating up dangerously, he sounded like a 12-year old and he was sure this must have been the worst confession that ever existed and Wonwoo deserved so much more than this and maybe he was panicking and-

“So, no liking Seungkwan?”

Wonwoo’s voice sounded so hopeful again as if he didn’t have listened to Mingyu’s whole rambling about him.

As an answer Mingyu snorted unattractively.

“Never. Have you ever seen how he behaves when Vernon is around?”

Wonwoo’s eyes started to glow with so much adoration, Mingyu got dizzy and he gripped onto the Ravenclaw’s hand.

This, however, made Mingyu remember something, another mystery that needed clarification.

“Wait, what about the Hufflepuff-Girl who confessed to you?”

The adoration was still there, but now confusion took over Wonwoo’s face.

“Which Hufflepuff-Girl..? Besides you, there was no one confessing to me.”

“The Hufflepuff-Girl Jeonghan talked about, he saw her confessing to y-“

While Mingyu spoke, a daunting prospect shot through his head.

“Wait, Jeonghan made some jabs at me and Seungwan dating?”

The confusion was still present when Wonwoo nodded, he started circling his thumb over Mingyu’s knuckles, as to calm down his agitated lover.

“If there was no girl confessing to you, Seungkwan never liked me and Jeonghan was the one who spoke of both of those rumours…”

Realization hit Mingyu hard, making him lean forward and hide his face on Wonwoo’s chest, which rumbled with laughter shortly after, a hand pressing on to Mingyu’s back.

“I think I got tricked.”

Mingyu let out a small whine with the words, too stunned at his friend’s brazenness to conspire a plan to get him confess to Wonwoo.

When Wonwoo didn’t give any reaction, Mingyu lifted his body again, already pouting at the lack of attention.

The Ravenclaw however, was occupied with something else.

Wonwoo’s gaze wandered past Mingyu, in his eyes a somewhat childlike expression, then he pointed at something outside of Mingyu’s vision.

“Look, the first snow of the year.”  
When Mingyu turned into the direction he saw small white flakes stumbling down the sky, falling to the ground where they melted into nothingness. For a second Mingyu observed the spectacle with amazement and when he turned back Wonwoo’s face was directly in front of his.

“I know I said I will confess to you tomorrow again and all that, but I would really like to kiss you right now. Can I?”

Mingyu stopped breathing for one moment, not knowing how his heart should survive the following minutes and so he could only nod weakly instead of screaming from his lungs that he wanted to be kissed by Wonwoo.

The Ravenclaw took his time, his hand making his way up to Mingyu’s cheeks, softly cupping his left one, his thumb stroking over skin. This movement was enough to transform Mingyu into a blushing mess, breathing was suddenly so much harder with Wonwoo slowly leaning in and when his lips touched Mingyu’s, he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to take in as much as he could of this moment so he could return to it even without a time turner.

In the end it was probably nothing more than a soft peck on the lips, but Mingyu’s finger nonetheless curled into Wonwoo’s uniform and time slowed down. He only reluctantly opened his eyes again. Wonwoo still hadn’t withdrawn, laughing out softly with a certain giddiness in his voice.

“Can I request a second kiss? Just to get a feel for it.”

Wonwoo’s laughter grew louder, this time his fingers finding the back of Mingyu’s neck, resting there softly, before leaning in again.

His lips found Mingyu’s a second time while the snow was falling quietly behind them.

True to his words Wonwoo confessed again the next day.

(“Who does even wait for two weeks to respond to someone’s confession? I am amazed you really took that bait.” “Shut up, Jeonghan.”)

**Author's Note:**

> a quick overview over svt's houses to avoid confusion.
> 
> Gryffindor: Mingyu, Seungcheol, Soonyoung & Minghao  
> Ravenclaw: Wonwoo, Jihoon, Vernon, Chan  
> Hufflepuff: Seungkwan, Junhui, Dokyeom  
> Slytherin: Jeonghan, Joshua 
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/puffygyus)


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